Charades
by Punzie the Platypus
Summary: God bless you! When Maximus sees Eugene being dragged off to prison after the lanterns, he figures out a plan and heads to the Snuggly Duckling to try to make them help him rescue the thief and the pretty girl. Unfortunately, he can't talk. God bless you!


**DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own Tangled. Maximus better be good at charades, he he he. You, (who is reading this, yes YOU!), please go write some more fics with Maximus as one of the main characters! He is VASTLY underrated. :)**

Maximus sat on the harbor, waiting patiently for the thief and Rapunzel with her little animal companion, Pascal, to return from their boat ride. He, being well, a horse, was too big to go in a small row boat, but Flynn, or what his name was now, Eugene, had given him a bag full of apples as compensation. Frankly Maximus found a bag of delicious, shiny red apples to be a better treat. He had a nice view of the lanterns from here and a snack to bright his experience.

The lanterns had all nearly disappeared by now, darkness covering nearly everything. Maximus yawned slightly and waited patiently for them to return. It was to his surprise and shock, then, when he looked up from his pile of apple cores to see some familiar red-shirted men dragging Eugene out of a boat.

Maximus's face turned confused as he watched them wrestle out the thief. Rapunzel and Pascal were nowhere to be seen and Eugene was shouting loudly to the guards, "Wait, wait, can't you see she's in trouble? WAIT!" but they ignored his pleas and dragged him away.

Maximus frowned and looked over to the other side of the kingdom worriedly. His anxious eyes couldn't find a glimpse of Rapunzel at all. His mind raced with the thought of her in trouble. This was bad. He instantly stood up in a hurry. He had to do something. He was the best horse in the kingdom's stables; even though he felt that the thief DID deserve to go to jail for what he had done, he needed him to rescue Rapunzel, because he had no idea what to do!

He anxiously walked about the harbor for a few minutes, worrying his brain over what to do. What if he had no time? What-what if. . . .?

He straightened with a small neigh when he heard two guards talking over his head on the stone wall. He turned to listen carefully as he heard one say, "We've done it! Rider's been captured!"

The guard's companion gulped nervously and held on tighter to his weapon. Maximus recognized him as a new guard, fresh and as raw as meat. "What, what are they going to do to him?"

"What do you think they're going to do to him? He's just been sentenced to death by hanging tomorrow morning!" the other guard told Conli. Conli gulped and gripped his weapon harder.

Maximus blanched. The thief, Eugene, die, tomorrow morning? He started to pant violently but stopped as a plan formed in his head. Maximus set his face into a determined expression and started to run off the harbor and down into the village.

People were still making their way home from setting off the lanterns, and were slightly shocked as Maximus flew past them. They grabbed their children and pulled them out of the way to keep them from getting run over.

Maximus didn't care how many people he scared; it only mattered that he ran as fast as he could. He whizzed through the village and down the long, stone bridge, hurrying on into the night. Of course, being a palace horse, he was quick in such conditions; criminals usually fled the city at night, after all.

He ran on down the road, his heart pumping and his feet hitting the dirt with a satisfying thud! All he could think of was how Rapunzel was in trouble and how in hell was he going to break Eugene out in time. How did she get in trouble? He knew young girls, and she was nothing like them. She didn't seem like the person to just suddenly get into trouble. Maybe she had gotten involved with those Stabbington Brothers, that would be bad, or maybe that woman who was calling out her name whom he saw yesterday. He had no idea, and he had no time to think about his thoughts for he rammed to a halt right in front of the Snuggly Duckling.

The thugs had just went back into the Snuggly Duckling after sending lanterns into the sky for the lost princess. Sure, they looked like a bunch of dirty, crusty ruffians and thugs, but they had sweet and kind hearts, and they felt sorry for the King and Queen, and thus, every April 26th, they sent up their own lanterns like everyone else. It was a tradition they had grown accustomed to, so it was weird for the holiday to get interrupted by the same white palace horse who had barged in yesterday, looking for the most notorious thief in the kingdom.

They all looked up from their celebratory drinks to see Maximus, heaving and all sweaty. He looked from face to face and finally settled on Hook Hand. He trotted up the short and stout man and neighed urgently. The thugs started to mutter, "What's he saying?" "Is he trying to tell us something?" Hook Hand looked from him over to the other thugs, asking no one in particular, "Is anyone here good with animals?"

Unfortunately for them, nobody really was. Two thugs finally pushed Vladimir over toward Hook Hand and Maximus (he DID like collecting ceramic unicorns, and that was almost the same thing, right? Except for, of course, that the unicorns has horns sticking out of their heads and they were small, ceramic and they didn't actually exist).

Hook Hand gestured to Maximus and asked, "What is it?"

Maximus looked about the pub for a moment before grabbing and holding up the Flynn Rider poster from yesterday that had been laying on the table. He balanced carefully on his hooves and pointed to it with his left front hoof.

"Rider?" Hook Hand guessed. Maximus nodded and the men muttered to themselves. If the horse wanted more help looking for Rider, they weren't going to help.

Maximus once again looked over the pub before smiling and heading toward the little accordion player. The player squeaked and held as still as he could as Maximus bent down and picked up his chains that were holding him down. Maximus turned to the thugs, (the accordion player hanging upside down in the air) and pointed to the little lock on his chains.

"Rider's in chains? He has a ball tied to his feet?" Hook Hand guessed. Maximus growled, annoyed, and pointed harder to the lock. Big Nose approached Maximus and looked closely to where he was pointing.

"Rider's locked?" he suggested. Maximus nodded enthusiastically, causing the accordion player to groan as the horse set him down rather roughly. He rubbed his head and watched as Maximus trotted around the room, sniffing and searching. The thugs now were talking loudly to each other, trying to figure out what the heck the horse wanted.

Maximus finally thought of something and pointed to the ceiling.

"The ceiling?" Hook Hand asked.

"The wooden boards?" Vladimir wondered.

"The sky? The heavens? Upstairs?" Atilla said.

Maximus rolled his eyes and pointed up as much as he could.

"The candles? The chandelier?" Gunther called over from the bar.

"Up?" Shorty suggested. Maximus nodded and everyone turned to see the short, Cupid dressed thug drop his drink and fall off of his bar stool.

Hook Hand stroked his chin gently with his hook hand as he said, "Rider, lock, up?"

"Rider's locked up!" Big Nose said.

Maximus nodded and pointed to a stray rope that lay on the floor. He gestured to it before imitating his head getting chopped off. The way the thugs looked at him told him he made his point. Maximus nodded and looked around. Now he needed to tell them about Rapunzel. He looked about hastily and found a stray frying pan laying on the counter. He grabbed it with his mouth and once he caught everyone's attention, started to swing it around, not so much as to hit anyone but enough for them to get his point.

Hook Hand shook his head in confusion while Big Nose and Vladimir exchanged looks. Maximus groaned and swung it around more. Hopefully they wouldn't take him for a crazy horse.

Shorty managed to sit up as he tried to climb back up the bar stool. "Maybe-maybe," he muttered drunkenly as he sat down, "maybe the pretty girl's in trouble."

Maximus nodded triumphantly and neighed, dropping the frying pan. All the thugs turned to look at each other then to Shorty, who had found another mug.

"In trouble?" Big Nose cried.

Ulf gasped.

"The pretty girl?" Vladimir roared sadly.

"She's in trouble, we-we have to save her!" Hook Hand yelled, raising his hook into the air. Maximus smiled happily.

"Yes, yes, we've got to save her! But-but we don't know where she is!" Tor moaned.

"What'll-what'll we do?" Bruiser said frantically.

"We'll break Rider out of prison and he'll save her, he must know where she is!" Hook Hand pointed out. Everyone agreed quickly and Maximus nodded approvingly. They all gathered around the stage (Hook Hand playing gentle piano music in the background), and came up with a plan. Several of them would take out the guards (while not killing them) while Shorty distracted the Captain at the back door. Everyone would be armed with frying pans and they'd put Rider on a cart, fling him into the air onto Maximus's back, and he'd lead Maximus to the pretty girl and save her. A plan that could backfire at any moment, but everyone was pretty confident about it.

At 2 in the morning they set out for Corona, Maximus leading the way. They weren't leaving Corona until they had freed that thief, who would then save the pretty girl, who inspired them to follow their dreams.

**And that's that. I kinda imagined this like when the forest animals are trying to tell the Seven Dwarfs about Snow White and then the least suspecting of them all guesses it (Shorty/Sleepy), and Ulf is kinda like Dopey (just pointing out their silence, lol). I hope you liked it and please review!**


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